Census of Governments

State Government Finances

Data Collection: 2007

Confidentiality: Data collected for the Annual Survey of State Government Finances are public record and are not confidential, as authorized by Title 13, United States Code, Section 9.

Dates of Collection: The following are important dates in the data collection process:

10/15/2007	Initial mail-out requesting source materials
03/06/2008	Non-response follow-up
09/30/2008 - 10/31/2008	Completion of data compilation and editing

Methods: Most of the data in this report were gathered by a mail canvass of appropriate state government offices that are directly involved with state finances. The fifty state governments provide most of the data from central accounting systems for all or most of their agencies. Data for other state-level entities, such as state institutions, commissions, component units, public authorities, and other state-level dependent government organizations were obtained from financial records of those individual entities. U.S. Census Bureau employees compile statistics on state government indebtedness and cash and security holdings from state governments' Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) and the financial statements of their dependent entities. Supplemental information may also be collected through the F-13 [PDF, 133KB] or F-25 [PDF, 135KB] forms. Statistics on state government public employee retirement systems are collected and processed by the Public Employee Retirement Survey. Statistics on state government tax collections are collected by the State Government Tax Collections Survey. These data are then merged with general statistics on state government finances to provide complete statistics on state government finances that are presented here.